Olive oil soaps have special benefits — here’s how they’re made

Pearl Soap specializes in handmade olive oil soaps. The company hails from Aleppo, Syria and has been producing the quality cleansers since 1945.

“The City of Aleppo has been famous in producing this unique soap for many centuries and still keeps the traditional handmade way of producing this soap,” the company stated. “The benefits of using this type of soap have been proven in European laboratories.”

Peal Soap’s products are made with natural vegetable ingredients but the olive oil is the real star here. According to the company, olive oil provides moisture, restores fat cells (plumps the skin) and is rich in vitamin E, a powerful antioxidant that can protect from damage caused by UV light and free radicals. The soap also contains laurel oil, which has disinfectant and antiseptic properties. The Aleppo soap is mild enough for all skin types, including sensitive skin.

But it’s the company’s unique crafting process that really shows how special each bar is.

Peal Soap workers first harvest olives and extract the oil. Then the olive oil is boiled with water, lye and laurel oil for three days. This turns it into a thick, creamy sludge consistency. Next, a worker pours the mixture over giant sheets of wax paper and smoothes it out. After a day of cooling and hardening, the massive soap sheet is ready to be cut.

A worker stands on a rake while another pulls him on a string, dragging the tool across the sheet. This cuts the sheet into thin, long slices. The weight of the worker is said to make the cuts more even. The process is repeated dozens of times until the entire sheet is divided into small cubes. Next, Pearl Soap’s logo is hand-stamped into each bar one at a time. The workers then stack the bars into massive piles where they take another six to nine months to dry before they can be sold.

Turns out making specialty soap is no joke.

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